Kitchissippi Ward Park Priority Spending Plan - Draft

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Many residents will recall that over the course of the last year, we have been consulting with the community about how to prioritize our Cash-in-Lieu funds. We enjoyed the rich consultation sessions, and have been working on taking all of the information that came from the sessions to be reworked into a concise priority list. Thank you again to those who were able to attend, or who submitted comments to our office. You can read more about the consultation process hereand here. You can also learn more about CIL funds here. Today, we are bringing you the first draft of that priority list for your questions, comments and feedback.

Attached at the bottom of this post you’ll find the priority list in draft form. The goal of the priority list is to have a clear spending path over the next six years. I want to be clear and transparent with the ward’s CIL funds, which is why we have undertaken this extensive consultative exercise.

The priority list was based on the input from the in-person sessions, consultant Wesley Petites’s subsequent meetings, analysis, and report, 257 surveys that went out to every school in our ward covering grades 2-10, an in-person session at Summit Alternative School with two grade 8 classes and discussions with vulnerable park users.

While we have developed this priority list, there is no guarantee that we can accomplish all of these items within the next six years. Our CIL funds come from development, so we will accomplish what we are able to with the available funds.

The list is divided into four categorized columns:

Major Projects that cost more than $80,000

Minor projects that cost less than $80,000

Acquisition of land

Contingency for any pressing projects

For each category, there is a portion of a dollar allocated. So, every time we receive $1 dollar from CIL, $0.47 will go towards Major Projects, $0.35 will go towards Minor projects, $.095 will go towards Acquisition and $.085 will go towards Contingency. Every category will be growing every time we receive CIL, just at different rates. The allocation of how much of each dollar goes into which category is a result of the consultation process and what the community told us their goals for CIL were.

So, if our CIL receives $500,000:

Major Projects receives $235,000

Minor Projects receives $175,000

Acquisition receives $47,500

Contingency receives $42,500

Within the Major and Minor projects categories there nine priority items each, making a total of 18 priority items. As funds accumulate in each category, as soon as there is enough money in the category’s pot to fund the next priority project in line, we will trigger the project. For example, while we are working to build up enough funds for a new field house at Laroche Park, we could theoretically fund the water fountain in Parkdale Park and the fitness equipment in Byron Linear Park.

The prioritization of Major and Minor Projects was done with careful consideration, weighing all of the input from the consultation and Wesley’s report, coupled with an attempt to spread the projects out throughout the ward, so that no area was receiving more projects than another.

There is only one priority for Acquisition, which is land for a new park within the Wellington Village area. The rate for these funds to be collected is lower, and we anticipate this is a long-term project. If it is completed within the next six years, we will keep collecting funds in Acquisition and allocate them appropriately after a review of the priority list.

The Contingency category has no priorities, and will be spent on projects when necessary, and to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.

There is an additional note at the bottom of the document about Ev Tremblay Park. We heard lots of advocacy for improvements to that park, and are looking forward to working on them in the future. We choose not to include these improvements within the priority list because these improvements will be funded with the Preston-Carling CIL funds (which are separate from our Ward’s CIL funds), a contribution from Ashcroft Homes, and lifecycle renewal.

We have also been discussing and working on closing the section of Pontiac Street from Carleton Ave to Cowley Ave. This project is already underway, we had committed to completing it with our existing CIL funds prior to the outcome of the consultation and as such we did not allocate a priority item to this project.

Attached at the bottom of this post, you’ll find the draft of the Priority List as well as Wesley’s report. Please feel free to review the documents and submit your feedback to us. We would like to hear all feedback by October 9, 2017.